TO YOU, THE ARTIST...

ONE SHOT 1- A TALE IN TWO PARTS

I am on the tube inbetween Kentish town and Camden the night before my 2nd year groups London showcase. Tomorrow, they stand in front of several of the countries leading agents at a west end theatre and, well, act.

The enormity of it hits me like a sucker punch.

2 years of talk will now become action. This is very possibly the biggest opportunity some of these group members will ever have and everything will count.

Every lesson missed, every lazy rehearsal, every half baked run through.

You may think I am being negative. But the funny thing about this ‘one shot’ is that it has been affected by every minor decision these guys have made to make themselves more or less than they can be. This ‘one shot’ was being decided when they chose to read that play properly or not. When they chose to skip learning lines, or really hold onto that objective, research the period for the play, turn up late to class again.

The one shot you get is rich with glorious possibility or cringe inducing shame depending on the tiny moment by moment decisions you have made on your journey up to it.

Someone once said ‘it took me twenty years to become an overnight success’. They weren’t lying.